Luck be a Lady
by The Carnivorous Muffin
Summary: In a shorter time than Harry believes possible Voldemort comes perilously close to winning the war, meanwhile Lily gets kidnapped by some cultists when mistaken for a virgin sacrifice. Side fic to "Lily and the Art of Being Sisyphus"


**Author's Note: To those about to read this I offer the warning that this is a side fic to the very AU "Lily and the Art of Being Sisyphus" and because of that is fairly unintelligible if you haven't read the original fic. That being said you're welcome to try.**

**Another warning that this is NOT CANON for very obvious reasons.**

* * *

The truth was that the war had ended before it had even really started.

Harry was staring into the fireplace in the Gryffindor common room, the place where Sirius' head would always show but now never would again, and he found himself dully coming to terms with everything that had happened and was continuing to happen.

Harry had lost, Dumbledore had lost, the Order of the Phoenix had lost; and none of them had ever seen it coming.

Well, maybe Dumbledore had seen it coming, not that Dumbledore told Harry anything. Not that he should, since Harry's stupidity and inability to learn Occlumancy had gotten Sirius killed.

Either way Harry hadn't seen it coming and that should mean something.

He'd been stupid, he'd thought, well not really but some part of him had believed that when he was in Hogwarts Voldemort just stopped doing anything. It wasn't like Voldemort didn't exist; he could feel the bastard in the back of his head, like the parasite he'd been in Quirrell's, but that he didn't do anything.

Not anything really important.

That had been Harry's mistake with Sirius, that moment of panic, because he hadn't realized that everyone he knew was vulnerable. Well again, he'd known logically, after all Mr. Weasley had almost died earlier that year but he hadn't really believed it. Voldemort could get Sirius, because one of those days Sirius probably was going to leave Grimmuald Place, and when it'd seemed to be a reality Harry hadn't sat down to think if it was really possible or not.

In retrospect Harry felt so stupid, because of course Voldemort wasn't twiddling his thumbs thinking evil thoughts. Of course he wasn't busy constantly planning Harry's, and only Harry's death, like some muggle spy villain. That would be stupid, and Harry had been told time and time again that Voldemort was anything but stupid.

And so only a few months into his sixth year, when Harry had been too busy worrying about Potions, Snape teaching Defense, Hermione's nagging about the Half Blood Prince, and everything else to even look around and think, Voldemort had taken over the ministry leaving Hogwarts as the only stronghold left.

And he'd never seen it coming.

* * *

It was waking up naked, lying inside a pentagram like the Vitruvian Man, surrounded by candles, and listening to the ominous sound of Latin chanting that made Lily realize that something had gone terribly wrong.

The only trouble was she had no idea exactly what had caused this particular malfunction in the universe's programming to occur.

Bizarre things happened in Lily's life on an almost daily basis, some of which were a product of her own actions, and some which happened because the universe was secretly falling apart. Still, it hadn't ever been this extreme before, at least not without a discernable reason.

She continued to lie there for a few moments, wondering if she was allowed to sit up, listening as the chanting continued.

Wizard Lenin was in too much shock to offer any advice or else explanation.

And they just kept on Gregorian chanting.

"_So… Should I do…" _Lily started to ask only to be cut off by a less than amused Wizard Lenin.

"_Lily, I swear to God, this would only happen to you." _

Lily wasn't sure why Wizard Lenin was blaming this on her considering only a few minutes before she'd been sleeping in her dormitory talking with him in her head. Besides, if she had somehow done this she would have made sure to bring Rabbit, who was nowhere in sight and was probably unsupervised in Hogwarts. Hopefully his popularity and charismatic silence would keep him surrounded by people and prevent him from eating anything too important.

"_It's hardly my fault that I've been…" _Lily looked over towards the masked figures and candles, searching for some indication of what had just happened, _"Kidnapped by a cult to be used as a virgin sacrifice." _

She felt as if Wizard Lenin really wanted to argue against that theory, but based on their surroundings, and the chanting couldn't quite bring himself to disagree.

Just then a thought seemed to strike him, a sneaking sinking suspicion, and he stated in a tone that was calmer than he seemed to feel, _"…Lily can you take another look at them without being obvious." _

Lily's eyes turned to them once again, they seemed to be finishing up their chanting, and took in a few more details than cult. They were all in black identical robes, very old fashioned wizardy things, and each wore a silver mask that concealed his face from view. Beyond them and the large black candles, the room was hard to see except that it was large and unlit.

Still, it seemed to be enough for Wizard Lenin.

"_Oh, hell." _

It was more frustrated and irritated than afraid or panicked so Lily could guess that the situation wasn't really dire, but nevertheless she wasn't exactly comfortable being naked on the floor.

And then the chanting stopped and they all looked down at her only to then turn and look at each other and shift uncomfortably. It was the look of a group of hardworking individuals who had labored for too long on a project and only discovered at the end that it came out completely wrong. Whatever virgin they had been expecting, Lily wasn't it.

Lily sat up slowly, the group scattered away from her, each taking several steps back as if even being close to her might bring them a painful death. With a wave of her hands Lily spun her usual outfit onto her form and then stood eyeing each robed figure in turn.

"So…" Lily started searching for something to say, at the sound of her voice several of them flinched.

Lily fingered her hair, still red, so it wasn't the Lily Riddle effect.

She started again, "So… Which dread god are we sacrificing my virginal body to today? You know, just so I'm prepared and all."

That apparently wasn't the right question because none of them answered, they only continued to stare, look at one another and whisper things that she couldn't quite make out.

"_Lily, these are… I think these are the remnants of my revolution." _Wizard Lenin said with a sigh, as well as a healthy dose of embarrassment and shame, as if even being associated with these people brought ruin to his reputation.

"_Wait… These are…" _

He didn't even let her finish.

"_Please, for my own sanity, let's just leave before they screw up even further beyond kidnapping the eleven year old Eleanor Potter."_ Hidden in that was the thought that one could never trust anything to forty year old junkies in rehab; and that their kidnapping of Eleanor Potter only went to prove it.

Before she could respond to that a cold and clear voice cut across the room, "This, is what you fools have managed to summon for Lord Voldemort?"

The group turned slowly, stiffly, each individual tense with fear until a new face was revealed. This man didn't wear a mask or a hood, probably because he didn't need to, since he didn't really have a human face.

For one thing he didn't have a nose, well he had two nostrils, but the nose itself was just… not there. It wasn't as if there was a hole where it should have been or any indication that it had been taken from him; it just wasn't present. He was also pale, paler than Ellie even and perhaps even Death, and taller than most of his robed compatriots.

Finally one of the members of Lily's robed chanting chorus began to offer some kind of an explanation, "My Lord, we followed the text to the letter, all the incantations and runes…"

"And yet you have only managed to summon a child." The man brought out a pale wand and pointed it at the robed guy who had just spoken, _"Crucio"_

And then the man was on the floor writhing in agony while everyone around just watched.

"_Holy shit." _Lily remarked to Wizard Lenin in her head as she watched the robed man's body contort itself in impossible ways thanks to the curse.

She'd never seen the unforgivables in action, she'd heard of them, but never seen them. And what a difference it made to see them first hand; they were much more graphic than she would have imagined.

Wizard Lenin agreed with that, seeming to be in shock, but his mind was focused elsewhere. On the noseless man, on his wand, and those words he had uttered on seeing Lily.

"_No, no one would dare…" _He started only to cut himself off.

"_What?" _

But he didn't explain merely watched as the curse was lifted and the man was left twitching on the floor as the noseless man addressed the group once again, "You will try again, my loyal Death Eaters, and you will not dare to fail me."

No one spoke or even breathed.

The man made to turn from the room, to dramatically sweep out with his robes flowing behind him, but suddenly a different robed minion broke the silence, "What… My lord, what should we do with… it?"

The noseless man stopped, turned to regard all of them, and coldly said, "Kill her, I have no use for products of a failed summoning."

And then he left, like he'd never been in the room at all, leaving Lily to blink after him.

Slowly Lily and the cult members turned to one another, they looked menacing enough, but most of that was from the mask and robes. She doubted if they were dressed in normal robes they would look half as menacing as they did now.

They began to pull out their wands, each facing her, looking unsure of her and exactly how they should treat her. As if they were wavering between thinking of her as a child and as something far more dangerous.

She raised her eyebrows, it seemed she wouldn't be getting any information out of them now.

"Well, I've never defeated an evil cult before." Lily commented and then she raised her hands and began to pull on the strings of the universe.

* * *

It'd been pretty much over in a single day early in the fall.

Harry's only hint was a particularly bad Voldemort dream that he'd had only a week or so before. It'd been an odd one though; different from the others. It'd started out normally enough, there was the all-consuming rage, but that had changed into something like anxiety and then even fear and horror. It became difficult to discern events, everything became warped, to the point where Harry on waking couldn't even remember what had happened only that it wasn't good.

All Harry knew was that he'd woken up with his scar bleeding.

He'd told Dumbledore as well as Hermione and Ron, but he hadn't wanted to think about it, the point was to keep Voldemort out not to let him in. Paying attention to dreams and visions was what had gotten Sirius killed; and Harry would never make that mistake again.

So he hadn't thought it'd meant anything.

Then, shortly after, without any warning at all, Voldemort attacked the ministry.

First he'd stripped the wards bare, isolated the place and kept outside reinforcements from coming in, he'd sealed off the Department of Mysteries and the Auror corps as well so that only the administration remained.

Mr. Weasley had been there, which was how Harry had heard later, and he'd said that for the first few minutes it had been disbelief and then chaos. They'd all started packing things from their desks then choosing to abandon them, some refusing to believe anything was happening at all, and in the midst of all of this a voice from an unseen speaker had cut across everything.

It hadn't sounded like the Voldemort they were expecting, Mr. Weasley said his voice was higher than he'd dreamed possible, sounding almost like a little girl's voice rather than a man's. Harry hadn't remembered it being that high, or rather it'd been high in a different way, sharp. He hadn't thought it'd sounded like a girl's, but then, Harry was always so close to dying whenever he heard it that he could be a bit biased.

Somehow though, the sound of his voice hadn't made that moment any less chilling, or so Mr. Weasley had said.

"Attention, attention please." The voice had said and everyone had stopped what they were doing to stare at one another in horror.

"As you may have guessed from the shrieking alarms, the non-responsive aurors, and the collapsed wards I thought it was time that you and I had a little heart to heart. You being the incompetent, bureaucratic, oligarchy and me being the bedraggled, underdog, returning from the dead revolutionary. But I digress."

The three of them, him, Hermione, and Ron, had read the letter altogether and they'd noted that Mr. Weasley had word for word quoted what the Dark Lord had said and maybe even had written it down at the time. It seemed to be the longest letter Harry had ever read in his life.

"I now own this government, I mean, not that I didn't before with Lucius Malfoy having my signature branded onto his arm but now I really own the government. It's all well and good to have a cult, to chant ominous things in the basement, and just have really weird rituals all the time but it doesn't really get anything done. I mean, it's very intimidating, and also graphic and bloody, but not actually very efficient." There was a pause here where Voldemort appeared to reflect on his words while everyone in his captive audience was paralyzed by fear.

Finally Voldemort said shortly, "I have removed your hopelessly corrupt Minister of Magic from office and have instead crowned myself emperor of Magical Britain. In the next few months I will be dismantling the bureaucracy so about half, maybe more, of you will be fired. Sorry, but I really don't see why we need…" Here Voldemort trailed off as if looking at something and then slowly said, "A department of Misuse of Muggle Artifacts, at all. So yeah, that's about it."

Later people would be able to leave, and when they left they found the auror headquarters in ruins, looking as if it had been hit by thousands of reducto spells and everything seeming the same and different all at once. No one ever saw Fudge again though, or Umbridge, or any of the high elite; perhaps most ominous of all though was over the top of the ministry there was no dark mark in sight.

* * *

It seemed that Wizard Lenin's minions were in even worse shape than he had suspected. After finishing them off Lily had sat down back in the pentacle, now a little worse for wear, and listened as Wizard Lenin talked in disbelief.

"_At worst, I thought, they would disband in my absence. That Severus Snape would somehow work his way into the Hogwarts faculty, that Lucius would bribe every court official he could find, and that Karkoroff would flee to Durmstang without a single glance back. That, I thought as I read what had happened, was the worst it could possibly get." _He seemed almost stunned, looking over the scene of devastation, the unconscious and unmasked members of his cult, lying on the ground with broken hands and their wands sitting in a pile waiting to be either sold on the black market or shipped to Albania.

"_I hadn't realized how terrible it would truly be if they continued their activities in my absence." _

Despite having the magical prowess of Death Eaters Wizard Lenin identified as Peter Pettigrew, the Lestrange brothers, and others Lily had managed to completely disarm and cripple them within two minutes. Wizard Lenin, needless to say, was mortified.

"_Well, to be fair to them, they probably didn't think I'd get the wands out of their hands so fast." _The trouble with most wizards was that they didn't realize how vulnerable they were without their wand. A wandless wizard, in the majority of cases, was equivalent to a dead wizard.

Lily's immediate goal in any fight then was to disarm then cripple so that they couldn't act even if they somehow summoned the wand back. First the wands, then the hands; it wasn't necessarily fool proof and could be countered simply enough.

The trouble was that they never saw it coming.

"_But I trained them, Lily, granted the majority of them were high on cocaine at the time but they should have remembered something." _Wizard Lenin responded, as if they should have known that was a possibility.

They hadn't though, not one bit, and now they were middle aged, unconscious, and apparently working for some noseless guy pretending to be Wizard Lenin and doing a very poor impersonation.

"_You can find new minions." _Lily tried to reassure him but it seemed that he didn't really want to be reassured.

"_That isn't the point. Voldemort, the Death Eaters, blood purism, that was never the point of everything… I hate this country." _

Lily wasn't particularly sure how his middle aged minions and the terribleness that was Wizarding Britain connected to one another but she felt that this wasn't the time to point that out.

Before Wizard Lenin could wallow further into the hole he'd created for himself the noseless imposter returned to the scene of the crime.

He glided in through the doorway, there really wasn't any other word like it, and he looked like some terrible bird of prey when he did so. His face was too pale, too smooth, more like a statue of some monster than a living breathing face. He looked more like a vague abstract model of humanity than a true person; and it was so odd to look at.

He slowed only when about to step in, and it was only then that he looked at the floor to see the bodies of his minions, and after a moment of studying them his eyes moved to her.

His eyes, she noted distantly, were red; a deep, dull, almost black red that contrasted with the pale almost blue tone of his face.

For a moment they only stared at one another, and then he brought out his wand in faster motions than she had ever seen from any wizard, and he pointed it straight at her head. She didn't blink and didn't make any sort of movement.

He looked as if he was struggling with himself, his face contorted into an odd grimace, and then with a hissing breath he said, "You, what are you?"

She stood and brushed off her conjured clothing to remove the chalk that had rubbed off of the pentacle before introducing herself, "Eleanor Potter, but I would have thought you'd know that, what with the whole sacrificial ritual and all."

For a moment he just stared at her, as if taking her in, dissecting her into small pieces and trying to find something of worth inside. "You are not what I intended to summon."

Her eyebrows raised, summon, she would have just gone with kidnapping but Wizard Lenin's very bizarre imposter seemed a bit too formal to use the correct words in the correct places. She also wondered how the hell he could have mixed her up with someone else; with the scar she was fairly identifiable and there weren't too many red heads in Wizarding Britain to begin with.

"Were you trying to get a Weasley?" She asked, Ron did say he had a younger sister who wasn't in Hogwarts yet.

The man seemed somewhat insulted by that, as if it was a great blow to his dignity that she would even suggest that he was trying to get a Weasley. He made that hissing breath noise again, where he sucked in air between jagged teeth, his lips twisting downwards and his wand hand twitching slightly as if aching to move against her.

Lily raised a low level shield.

"Tell me, little girl, how did you defeat my Death Eaters?"

"_I can't believe this is happening." _Wizard Lenin really couldn't, he could decide if he was mortified for himself or the man pretending to be him.

Lily particularly liked the slight lisp at the end of his words, like he was trying to hiss everything menacingly, it was a really nice touch.

"_Was it really necessary to notice that particular detail?"_ Wizard Lenin asked her, feeling that the less they dwelt on the man the better.

"With magic?" Lily asked, that seemed like a standard response to this sort of situation, and it wasn't like he really needed to know all the details. Then after a moment's thought she added, "Besides, they're not really your Death Eaters, are they? I'd recommend getting a newer younger bunch if I was you, since you're getting them on loan."

He seemed somewhat confused by this, "What are you talking about?"

She motioned towards him and the room, "Well, this whole thing."

His lips curled then into something resembling a smile. It wasn't really a smile though, it was too wide and too jagged, and it looked closer to the grimace he had made earlier than any real expression of happiness, "Little girl, I'm afraid you're a bit confused, you see, I am the dark lord Voldemort."

He looked like he meant it, standing there, very proud and tall and for a moment Lily almost wanted to believe him. Voldemort really was just a name at the end of things and it all depended on how you chose to wear it.

"Okay then." Lily responded, as far as she could tell with Wizard Lenin out of commission the name sort of was out for grabs. If the noseless man wanted it he could have it until Wizard Lenin returned.

"_No, Lily, no he can't." _

The man seemed shocked at this, as if no one responded so easily to his introduction, or maybe to the death threat, and his smile became something closer to a sneer, "I'm afraid you've made a mistake today, you see, you let my servants live and it's clear that I have no use for you. I can always make another summoning but you will not be lucky enough to have such a second chance. I'm afraid this is the end for you, little girl."

Lily knocked the wand out of his hand with a slight twitch of the fingers and they both watched as Lily summoned it into hers. For a moment both of them stared at the wand blankly, unable to process what had just happened, and then he tried a wandless summon and they both watched again as the wand remained firmly in her grasp.

"_I can't believe that worked." _Lily commented to Wizard Lenin, for some reason she'd assumed that someone pretending to be him would have figured out how to counter something like that. Wizard Lenin was too busy being ashamed to offer any possible explanation for Lily's extremely easy victory.

"_Every word, every action, every breath he takes is an irreversible blow to my apparently ruined reputation." _

The man meanwhile had developed a far more serious lisp than before and was hissing out dire warnings and threats while glaring at her with red eyes. There was something about mudbloods, powerless creatures, and other things that really made no sense strung together. It was as if he was too angry to even process language correctly and so the threat was sort of lost in translation. Instead his eyes burned with an unholy fire and he made to move towards her, trying to wandlessly push her against the wall or else get his own wand back, but the magic failed when reaching her shields.

She cut him off mid rant when he was about a foot or so from her still attempting to throw her off balance or else summon back the wand, "Yeah, so, listen, I'm very confused about why I'm here. I mean one moment I was in my room sleeping the next… If you have some sort of reverse summonings, a sending maybe, that would be excellent."

She thought it would be simple enough. He clearly wasn't pleased with the way things were going; not that she knew what he had expected but this clearly wasn't it so it would be reasonable to just send her back and pretend it never happened. Then he could summon himself a Weasley or whatever it was he really wanted and all would be well with the world.

If Lily was in his situation, not that she would try to impersonate Wizard Lenin and then mistakenly kidnap Eleanor Potter, but if she was then she would just send Ellie Potter back no questions asked.

Wizard Lenin wouldn't be happy, would probably demand she put fake Wizard Lenin up for a hit with Riddle Inc., but that was a whole different issue that could be dealt with at another time.

If the noseless impersonator was in any way a reasonable man he'd see it was the best course of action to take.

Unfortunately, she noted as the man lunged forward with very sharp nails towards her throat, noseless fake Wizard Lenin was not a reasonable man.

* * *

"Tom will not take Hogwarts, Harry, he lacks the power."

It was one of Harry's lessons with Dumbledore. Voldemort controlled London now, had decimated the aurors and the ministry, and had set about firing pretty much everyone who worked there. At the very least, he didn't kill anyone, he just sent them home with a final paycheck and that was the end of that.

Diagon Alley now apparently had propaganda posters all over the place. Which, well, the Weasleys hadn't called them propaganda posters (that was apparently a muggle concept) but that's clearly what they were.

The worst was that no one even seemed willing to fight anymore. Voldemort in power wasn't as terrible as everyone had expected. There were no broken and bloody bodies in the streets, no raids in light houses, no banishments, nothing really changed at all except the way the ministry worked. It no longer seemed worth it for the normal wizard to stand against Voldemort; like if he wasn't being really evil right at that specific moment then there was no real problem.

So now Hogwarts was the last stronghold in England left against him; but if you listened to Draco Malfoy and his goons then he'd be here soon enough.

"Sir, he took over the ministry in days, and…" Harry started but Dumbledore cut him off with a cold sharp glance and Harry fell silent.

Harry was supposed to be focused on their lesson, on the memories of Tom Riddle's past, on getting that memory from Slughorn and he was trying but what good was the past when they were losing in the present.

He didn't need to know that Voldemort had once been a creepy brat who liked to cause other people pain, that his mother had been poor and ugly and had used a love potion on a muggle, Harry didn't need to know these things.

He needed lessons in dueling, in Occlumency, in something that would help him win. Not whatever Dumbledore thought he was teaching him; not that Dumbledore seemed to care.

"So long as I am headmaster, Harry, so long as the wards stand Tom cannot enter Hogwarts. And in the end, I believe that it is Hogwarts, and not the ministry or the Wizengamot that controls the fate of England. Even more, I do believe that Tom himself believes that."

Dumbledore turned from him and back to the pensive, where another memory of Tom Riddle whirled about inside, and Harry found himself frowning even as he responded dully, "Yes sir."

He didn't know how to put it, why he was really worried, but Voldemort seemed different than before. Harry didn't get visions anymore, it was like Voldemort was cut off, the last vision he'd had was that one before the ministry attack.

Harry didn't like it, this change, the feeling that war was coming faster than he had ever imagined possible. It was a very real possibility that he might end up knocking on Hogwarts doors; and that Harry wouldn't be ready.

"Are you ready, Harry?" Harry looked over at Dumbledore, blinking out of his thoughts, and nodded.

"Yes, sir."

And they dove into the memory of what Tom Riddle used to be.

* * *

Lily found that she had a few choices.

One, she could go back to Hogwarts and serve detention out with Quirrell and try to explain that it wasn't her fault that she'd been kidnapped by a Hindenburg impersonator and the pitiful remains of the Death Eaters.

Or two, she thought as she fingered the imposter's wand, she could get Wizard Lenin's group in some kind of a working order.

Nothing much, nothing too extravagant, but enough to get them back on their feet and make them less overall pathetic. Clearly ten years had gotten to them and it was just kind of embarrassing for everyone that these men and women had almost taken over the country.

"_Just for a few weeks, nothing major, and then I go back to Hogwarts." _

Wizard Lenin said nothing to the idea, still in embarrassed shock over the events that had taken place, but she supposed if he was really opposed to the idea he'd just say something.

So with no major objections in mind she woke up Wizard Lenin's former minions.

They each clutched their hands, holding them like broken little birds very close to their chests, and then turned to look at her with wide and terrified eyes. They didn't even bother to look behind her, where the remains of the noseless man remained, and seemed capable only of staring at her.

They were a bit of a ragged crew, now that Lily looked at them, most of them were too thin with the exception of Peter Pettigrew being too fat. They all had dark circles around their eyes and were drenched in the sweat that only the sickly seemed to have. All in all they reminded her a bit of Quirrell, like men on the verge of death.

She smiled brightly at them, some of them flinched, "Well, I suppose I should introduce myself. Hello everyone, from now on you may address me as Voldemort, or my lord, or your excellency, whatever you prefer."

Then they seemed to realize what had happened to their former leader. For a moment they just stared silently in horror, one of them leaned over and vomited onto the floor, sobbing as he did so.

Finally one of them spoke, "My… What did you do to him?"

Lily looked behind her to the man, "Oh, him, well, he wasn't going to send me back and he got all stabby with the nails so… Yeah he's dead."

She hadn't meant to either, hadn't expected it at all, she'd only placed her hands against his face meaning to shove him off when he'd started melting. Then all she could do was watch in horrified fascination as he slowly lit on fire and eventually grew still with almost none of his face remaining. Then he'd just lay there, not breathing, a dark column of smoke exiting his body and all she could do was sit and stare and wonder if she'd somehow just killed him.

She tried not to think on it too deeply.

"Dead? But how can…"

No one seemed willing to finish that sentence, some took a step back as if to run away, but no one did.

"Right, so, anyway I'm in charge now and we're going to take over England because you lot are terrible. You all cool with that?"

Lily took their lack of reaction as agreement and smiled, "Good, excellent, let's get started then. Shall we?"

* * *

Harry had decided that he couldn't wait any longer.

Voldemort was coming, there was no questioning it, because ultimately Hogwarts was more important than the ministry or anything else. It was Hogwarts that really mattered, and he was sure that Voldemort felt the same way.

Harry was probably going to lose, he wasn't ready, he wasn't nearly ready but he wasn't going to wait and be slaughtered either. He was going to stop him from getting to Hogwarts, somehow, even if it killed him to do it.

He had packed the thestral, and had left a note in his bed for Hermione and Ron when they realized he was missing, he'd also left his cloak and most of his belongings; he didn't want Death Eaters getting any of them.

It was probably suicide but all the same there was that prophecy. Harry had to believe in it, he had to believe that it was really true, that he had some power that Voldemort didn't and that whatever that power was it'd make all the difference.

Maybe it was love, friendship, whatever but whatever it was it had to work. Harry had to win, he had to try, because he couldn't wait until everyone else was killed while he sat there doing nothing.

It was past time to end things.

* * *

"_Are we done here yet?" _

Lily was sitting in what used to be the Minister of Magic's office with her feet propped on the desk wondering what Wizard Lenin had been doing ten years before when it was so terribly easy to take over the government.

"_I had Albus Dumbledore to consider as well as a somewhat competent ministry… Can we please leave?" _

She didn't respond but she was feeling much the same; the whole idea was losing its appeal. She hadn't expected to win after the first raid, had counted on it even, it was supposed to be more of a training exercise for Wizard Lenin's troops than anything else. As it was they were worse than useless.

Bellatrix Lestrange had returned from a mission shortly after Lily had taken over Wizard Lenin's title and had thrown what could only be called a deranged hissy fit and since then Lily had kept her locked in a closet so she didn't try to kill things, Snape was apparently a double spy who kept sending her reports about some angsty kid named Harry Potter who apparently had virtually no talent in anything (why Snape felt he needed to make regular reports about this was entirely beyond her), and Malfoy was attempting to play politics and decide just how much he was willing to join up with the bandwagon or else abandon the cause now that Lily was the new Voldemort.

That wasn't even getting to the weirdness of the Lestrange brothers, the fatness of Peter Pettigrew, the leering meetings with Greyback, or everyone else.

"_I realize that after ten years they are not ideal; you do not need to point it out." _Wizard Lenin responded shortly. She didn't know why he was insulted though, considering he had initially started recruiting at the equivalent of wizarding frat parties he got what he paid for.

"_They weren't exactly… Let's just leave."_ He said cutting himself off before pursuing a conversation he didn't even want to think about.

That was probably a bad sign for the revolution once he finally got his body back but then Wizard Lenin had mentioned more than once that the Hindenburg movement had probably lost all its momentum and that it was time to form some new group. Either way it seemed, after seeing what his minions had become, the Death Eaters were a giant bust.

"_Okay, fine, let's go back to Hogwarts." _She said standing with a sigh and checking her pockets for all the important magical items she kept there. It was time to get back to monitoring Rabbit and seeing if Hogwarts even still existed not to mention she had probably been assigned hundreds of detentions with Quirrell.

It was almost sad how relieved Wizard Lenin was at the thought of going back to school. And it was almost sadder that he had nothing to say to that.

* * *

Harry ran into Bellatrix about halfway through the building.

She looked frayed, thin, like she had the year before but maybe even more so. She took one look at him, her eyes dazed, and a sneer grew on her face.

Bellatrix, it was Bellatrix who had pushed Sirius in.

Harry brought out his wand, his hand shaking, wondering if expelliarmus was going to be good enough or if he'd have to go for something worse than that. If he used an unforgiveable he'd be no worse than Voldemort; so he wouldn't do that, but he could still make it hurt.

"I don't have time for ickle Potter today." She said and unbelievably made to move past him.

Harry shouted out a spell, "Expelliarmus!"

The red bolt of light missed her by inches, and she turned slowly, almost unwillingly to face him. He opened and closed his mouth, searching for words that weren't just screaming, and said, "You killed my Godfather and I will make sure you pay for it."'

"Oh, ickle baby Potter's become a man." She giggled, and the sound was sickening. She looked tempted to fight him, to have it out right there right now, like they should, but in the end was too distracted.

"I'll come back for you later, baby Potter, but now I've got to find that little red headed bitch." She made to cast some binding spell on him but Harry ducked out of the way just in time and once again cast the disarming spell at her.

She was beginning to look annoyed then, as if this was no longer a brief distraction but actually a hassle, and all Harry could do was see red and think that somehow he was going to have to win this fight. Win this fight and then push on to Voldemort and somehow win that fight. He hadn't come all this way, snuck through, only to lose.

"No, we do this here, we do this now." Harry said, his wand hand finally steadying as he took a deep breath.

Her expression became sober, the mad joy left her eyes, and she stared at him only blankly, "Fine then, Potter, we do this here but I don't have time to make it any fun."

* * *

"Wait, so we've never met before."

Lily was seated in the Headmaster's office and things had gone from weird to weirder very fast.

"No, I'm afraid not." Dumbledore was in one of his serious moods, apparently apparating into Hogwarts was kind of a big deal, and it looked as if he was thinking of her as a serious threat. He also didn't appear to remember anything about her. His hand also looked very dead and shriveled which it hadn't when she left.

Lily had decided that she was blaming Rabbit for all of it.

"Right, well…" Lily started not sure what to do now that she apparently didn't exist in Hogwarts. "Should I leave then?"

"No, no, it is the duty of Hogwarts to offer a magical education; far be it from me to deny you yours." Dumbledore reassured and then asked, "And you said you were Eleanor Potter?"

"The one and only." Lily assured him but he looked anything but assured, if anything he seemed even more disturbed and sober than before. That apparently hadn't been the right answer to give. As if not only did Eleanor Potter not exist but that she shouldn't exist; like her existence meant something.

She really wasn't sure what to make of that.

He didn't really seem sure what to make of things either, so they sat there for a few moments, listening to the buzzing and the whirring of his instruments.

Finally, with a cough to clear his throat, he said, "Well then, Miss Potter, we'll have you sorted in a jiffy and then place you in… What year?"

"First."

"Yes, your first year…"

And the silence was so palpable after that it almost seemed to drip down the walls and into the carpet. Yet somehow she was still sitting there, with him, waiting for some sign that it was time to leave the room and resume her life. All she could hear though were those ticking, whirring, buzzing instruments and that didn't seem to be enough.

* * *

Bleeding, with broken bones, but with more determination than Harry had ever had before he stepped over the body of Bellatrix; not willing to think on the glazed expression in her eyes or the emptiness he felt after it was over.

He then limped his way through the empty hallways, passing alarmed portraits who took in the sight of his wounds, but he didn't stop until he reached the minister's office.

He opened the door and inside he found only scattered paper work and not a person in sight.

* * *

**Author's Note: So I almost killed Harry off in this fic, but after killing off James in the last side fic I decided to grant him the benefit of the doubt as well as a healthy dose of luck. At any rate this is for the 1600th side fic of "Lily and the Art of Being Sisyphus" by Empty Thoughts and asked for a fic where Lily falls into the canon universe. **

**On another shameless advertising note, Oedipussy has decided to make an audio recording of "Lily and the Art of Being Sisyphus" but unfortunately needs some male preferably British voices for Wizard Lenin, Death, and other male characters. So if you have a man voice, and can do an accent, and want to say lines like "Those Goddamn muggle sons of whores" PM her. **

**Thanks to readers and reviews as always are much appreciated.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.**


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